LifeSkills4Kids

18/01/2016

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1120904637948239&id=517549624950413

When you're raised by a single parent, you tend to accept and give love differently. Relationships become harder and the fairy tales fade away.

23/07/2015

"Because they have so little, children must rely on imagination rather than experience" - Eleanor Roosevelt

22/07/2015

Continued -
In many cases, becoming a parent can almost never be explained or understood till you just are. It can often add extra strain to maintaining a relationship with your partner..over and above life’s day to day demands and stresses. Almost as though the first year there just doesn’t seem like there time to be a couple. We only human and life does demand so much from us these days. As parents we certainly don’t always have the right tools, time or perhaps even the awareness that our kids..even so young..are taking it all in. Indeed we either need to just survive financially, emotionally or even physically, and often, we doing the best we can. However in saying that..our kids still need the help and tools to get through.

Our kids come first – everyone else will and can look after themselves and make decisions with their own resources and know how. Kids look and rely on us to build their safe place. To recognise when we as parents are struggling with the demands of life and relationships..that our kids get front row seats and back stage passes every time. For us to step away from all and witness how and what is being experienced and then if need be explore avenues or resources to assist us and them.

22/07/2015

I so strongly believe it is in childhood that the most healing and support is needed. This is where healing has its strongest, quickest and will result in the most effective overall as they become adults. As adults it is so much harder for us as adults to heal from the inside out and peel away through each layer we created. By the time we adults we have mastered the art of protecting it and sealing it. Designed ways of distracting ourselves from going back there. See, as kids especially in our early years we gather, gather information and file it. However this information is distorted, especially if a childhood had been exposed to divorce, violence, stress financial difficulty. All these signals would have been processed and distorted. Kids do not file information as a adult does. No logic as why mom crying, or dad shouting, or dad moved out, or parents fighting..no information is filed other than its as a result of them. Children roughly between the ages of 1 – 6 years old don’t see themselves separate from their parents. In other words nothing exists beyond the parents for them internally..or nothing external or influences exist as a result of whats happening for and between their parents but them. All they feel, experience and understand is a product of raw emotion and in the now. One only has to imagine how then the information stored if never explained or translated correctly..how it becomes distorted. How young children begin to develop a relationship to the world and how they affect it.

ArgueTime

In many cases, becoming a parent can almost never be explained or understood till you just are. It can often add extra strain to maintaining a relationship with your partner..over and above life’s day to day demands and stresses. Almost as though the first year there just doesn’t seem like there time to be a couple. We only human and life does demand so much from us these days. As parents we certainly don’t always have the right tools, time or perhaps even the awareness that our kids..even so young..are taking it all in. Indeed we either need to just survive financially, emotionally or even physically, and often, we doing the best we can. However in saying that..our kids still need the help and tools to get through.

22/07/2015

I have made many mistakes, watched my boys endure my emotional highs and lows and not always, even knowing better..had them carry far more responsibility and that which was not theirs to carry. Its amazing how they trust us and how they so easily take it all on. Innocent and believing. Their earlier years..their world revolves around us. Its there where that small window lies open, to shape, instill and mold those defining impressions and beliefs as too who they are and how they fit into this world. Its through this window the ‘child/parent’ attachment and influence at its strongest. It will define or outline every idea, impression and reason they do, act and are as they are well into adulthood. However its in this stage often the parent/child relationship is abused or where, as parents, dont always have clear perspective as to the key influence the first few years have. Ages 2-5 being at their most sensitive to our emotional state and overall atmosphere in their home. Often, when first becoming a parent, we still learning..realising our world as we knew it, will never be the same and then adjusting to it all. The kids cant talk, and the only thing that exists is mom and dad..plenty is done and experienced in the earlier years for them.

15/08/2012

When we allow kids the freedom to be actively involved in their growth, realizing that they able to take responsibility for their learning, they can then have the courage to think independently and explore which then promotes confidence and self esteem.

02/08/2012

02/08/2012

Fears : a closer look
Human beings can't avoid being anxious or fearful or worried at various times in their lives. Most adults know that the fear will pass despite the immediate discomfort. Children, however, are not so sure. Most children experience some fears as they grow; it may be a fear of a ghost under the bed or a fear that their parents may leave them. Although fears are a normal part of development, children deal with them differently. Some children are daredevils; they rush in to a new situation fearlessly. Some children are more cautious and like to look things over first. Some children are too fearful to try anything new.

The nature of fears and the ways in which children cope with them change with age. To the younger child a minor danger can be seen as an enormous threat. Young fearful children rely on adults to soothe them, but with increasing age, children's increased ability to understand and to use logical reasoning helps them learn to cope with fears. Mastering fears can help a child deal with dangers rather than retreat from them.

02/08/2012

ADHD and Giftedness

Although it has been the primary purpose of this paper to relate the similarity of behaviors indicative of ADHD and creativity, it is important to note that many intellectually gifted children also exhibit behaviors that are associated with a diagnosis of ADHD. Although it is possible for children to be both gifted and ADHD, there are dangers of misdiagnosis for gifted children when the evaluation is not thorough (Webb & Latimer, 1993).

Observed as inattentive, the gifted child may be bored. Described as hyperactive, the gifted child may be displaying a high energy level. Regarded as difficult and obstreperous, the gifted child may be questioning authority and creating a personal, complex rule system (Webb & Latimer, 1993).

Michael Kearney, the youngest college graduate in the world, was diagnosed as a toddler with ADHD and prescribed Ritalin. However, his parents declined drug treatment and decided to nurture Michael's genius with education instead. He started school at age three, entered junior college at six, and graduated from he University of South Alabama at ten (Patureau, 1994). His father, Kevin Kearney, refused the notion that Michael's inattention is due to a lack of attention: "In fact, children like Michael have an attention surplus. He's so much faster than we are. In two seconds he's figured out what you're going to say. He's toyed with a few answers and now he's looking around waiting for you to finish. It looks like he's not paying attention and it drives teachers crazy. (Kearney quoted in Patureau, 1994, p.M4).

According to Webb and Latimer (1993, the most important distinctions between the gifted child and the child with ADHD are the situationality of the behavior and the variability of task performance. They have contended that the "activities of children with ADHD tend to be both continual and random; the gifted child's activity usually is episodic and directed to specific goals" (p.2). Also, they have observed that children with ADHD exhibit inconsistency of performance and effort in almost all tasks and in all settings, except television or computer games, although the extent of the behaviors and the degree to which they are perceived as troublesome may vary; gifted children will usually do well in classes that are enjoyable and appropriately challenging. However, some researchers have not seen situational variability as a reason to rule out a diagnosis of ADHD (Barkely, 1990; Schaughency & Rothlind, 1991). To clarify this, the newest DSM-IV guidelines for the diagnosis of ADHD recommend that the symptoms be observed in two or more situations and that the "disturbance causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, academic, or occupational functioning" (American Psychiatric Association, 1994, p.E:9).

02/08/2012

LifeSkills4Kids workshops offer a specific environment which
not only builds their confidence, encourages individualism, but
empowers them with tools to identify certain emotions and how
to best deal with them. These workshops are designed to target
and facilitate an environment with a platform where they can
express, as well as begin to to understand feelings.
At the end of the workshop they will leave with a stronger
knowledge and understanding of themselves and their true
potential.